A recent seminar in one of Mumbai’s fancy hotels was titled ‘Transformative Design – the Future of Architecture’. Including speakers from India, Dubai and Singapore, its glowing internationalism upheld ideals of conservation, materiality, spatial confluence, green envelopes, curtain walling systems, shade and environmental protection, energy harnessing, waste management, electrical grid and distribution systems, design for the differently-abled, façade and elevation treatments, and building face lifts. So comprehensive was the scope of the conference, it left nothing to chance.
The large audience of designers, students and practising architects filed in dutifully behind meeting room banners that proclaimed in bold type, ‘Urban Transformations in Regional Contexts’, ‘Biospheric Conservation’ and ‘Ecological Constructs’. However muddled and mismatched the titles of the various presentations, all day in meeting rooms and conference halls, a steady drone was heard with slide displays of new shopping centres, nursery schools, office buildings, and spas in the hills — the celebration of a profession that had created its own false language.
